Daniel Deronda 2/e (Oxford World's Classics) Paperback – 10 July 2014

I liked this book tremendously. So full of detail and interesting characters. I felt I was traveling in both time and place.

George Eliot is a literary genius of the highest intelligence. The novel is very well constructed and Eliot has extraordinary psychological insight.

I found this quite a long slog of a book at over 800 pages. It's very detailed with a lot of background some of which I found hard to follow. I've only read Silas Marner and Adam Bede before, both of which are much shorter with easier story lines. I really didn't think I'd enjoy or finish this one, but I got swept up with Daniel, Gwendoline and Mirah's stories, and although it took me ages to get through, it was a good, epic read. I'm glad I persevered and look forward to picking up the other Eliot novels on my shelves.

Middlemarch is Eliot's defining achievement, but this her final novel succeeds admirably in holding themes together that a lesser writer couldn't have managed. This World Classics edition is well produced, with useful introduction, notes and other features, with a clear and readable font.

The actual deliverery/condition of the book was 1st class. However, the book itself, although very intriguing, is quite hard work. The sort of book that , I find, I can only read and absorb few pages at a time. I will finish it but I have to take breaks from reading it. It is very wordy - George Elliott takes 20 words to say what could be said in 10 !!!

Daniel Deronda is magnificent novel. I love George Eliot works. For me she writes as if she were building a cathedral, stone by stone. I think Daniel Deronda is quite dense, due to the seriousness of the subject it deals with, but it kept me hooked.

With profound insights into character and behaviour. Sometimes Eliot's prose style becomes a bit turgid but it's always well worth perservering. And couldn't wait to see how it ended! Very satisfying.

I quite enjoyed this & Romola but think Silas Marner & The Mill on the Floss the best two.

An important classic that had much the same power regarding Jews and Zionism in Britain that Uncle Tom's Cabin had about slavery in America. Deserves great praise and a work of genius.

Daniel Deronda gehört zweifelsohne zu den wichtigsten englischen Klassikern der Literaturgeschichte und ich habe die Story sehr genossen obwohl sie meist sehr weitschweifig war.Diese Kindle-Edition allerdings ist der letzte Graus. Auf jeder zweiten Seite findet sich ein Tippfehler (6f statt of!!!), Zeichensetzungsfehler (z.B. zu viele Anführungszeichen, sodass man sich oft nicht ganz sicher ist, wo jetzt die direkte Rede aufhört oder nicht). Das ist ein absolutes No-Go. Auch für 70 Cent sollte das Buch noch lesbar sein.

cfr. recensione precedente dell'edizione francese: si tratta infatti dello stesso libro. Basta ricopiare quel testo appena inviato: così sarà perfetto

Visualize yourself in a misty morning, seeking a rare, marvellous blossom amid the creepy weeds growing across a shallow lake the vastness of which veils its shores even in the brightest of days, and the svelte stalks of that voluminous vegetation cantankerously curl around your legs, making each move exhaustingly difficult, and you stand baffled at the thought of being unable to decide whether you should return without……... IS EXACTLY how can be the feel of reading Daniel Deronda - the last and the most unconventional of all George Eliot novels, notorious for its sheer ability to ignite intense dislike even in some serious readers……. The master story-teller, George Eliot, conjures up two riveting plots and weaves them together in such a fashion that they barely touch except at rare occasions….. “And even in this beginning of troubles, while for lack of anything else to do she sat gazing at her image in the growing light, her face gathered a complacency gradual as the cheerfulness of morning. Her beautiful lips curled into a more and more decided smile, till at last she took off her hat, leaned forward and kissed the cold glass which had looked so warm.”Gwendolen Harleth meets Daniel Deronda at a gambling table from where they part ways even before a formal “hello” could sparkle, while we escort the series of events that lead them to meet each other on that table, and later, what followed that gambling.Gwendolen could have been a walking natural disaster if beauty alone could kill people. Remarkably narcissistic and ambitious, she is so definite about what she wants and how to take it. Despite being someone everyone would like to dislike, her frivolous and overbearing self enjoys being the centre of admiration, demands herself alone to be at that centre wherever it is, and rest of the world must wait upon her as if it was created solely to accomplish that – a reality she doesn’t realise to be existing in her featherbrained head alone, until she meets the calm crocodile Mr. Grandcourt, an exceptional deviation from every ‘evil’ character Eliot created before. On the other hand, Daniel is a selfless youth obscure about what he wants in life, struggling with his own origin and identity in the grand scheme of universe. He is the most feminine hero I have ever come across, feminine not in his features and manners, but for his earnest feelings, loving compassion and deep understanding of people in his life.Connecting these plots of stark contrast through Daniel’ tenderhearted nature, Eliot canvasses in Daniel Deronda every aspect of the desire to manoeuvre as the strong undercurrent shaping the fate of humans. Saying anymore about the story may attract spoilers but I cannot go without mentioning what I have learned about why this novel is indigestible to many, why it attracts criticism from every corner. It may not surprise today’s readers, but back in 1876 when Daniel Deronda was published, anything that portrayed Jews sympathetically created only violent disturbances everywhere it reached. Even Dickens and Trollop were anti-Semitic. Jewish Benjamin Disraeli might have been the prime minister of UK in 1876, but Jews were treated with extreme derision and revulsion in England [and everywhere] is what I understood. Jews criticised Eliot for Gwendolen and demanded her part be removed from the novel whereas the rest wanted only Gwendolen to remain and change its name to Gwendolen Harleth. Soon after Daniel Deronda was published, anti-Semitics were so dissatisfied that one of them even “corrected the mistake Eliot did” by publishing his/her own version of the novel in 1878; Semitics also had theirs, I understand. I wonder whether Eliot had read any of them or not!That was yesterday; what about today?I am not sure if Eliot is as famous as Brontes or Dickens or Austen. In general, the lion’s share of Victorian literature read today is ‘silly novels by lady novelists.’ Do we still address Charlotte Bronte as Currer Bell? But Mary Ann Evans is still George Eliot. Isn’t it worth thinking? While the auras of anti-Semitism as well as staunch Judaic notions with their varying intensities may generate a few criticisms, the general population with its tendencies to appreciate the charisma of brooding and narcissistic notions while discarding anything it doesn’t understand as dull and tedious seems to criticise Daniel Deronda more. This fight in literary universe over this book seems very unlikely to end any soon. Today we have a lengthy meticulous study about Daniel’s penis [trust me, it is very scholarly, without a tinge of vulgar observations] as a solid evidence of that and I expect this course of arguments and counter-arguments to pass all tests set by the future as well.I am no one to value George Eliot’s writing. Yet, I personally feel that Daniel Deronda would definitely have surmounted Eliot’s own Middlemarch which is often considered as the greatest of all British novels, had she taken more time and care to craft it in a better way, for it has an even more sublime story to tell. Eliot had used a vast fortune of her profound learning in Daniel Deronda, not only because it is her style of art but also because the story desires such soundness to express itself. The shining pearls of wisdom scattered all over the novel seem to be a little more than adequate to allow its unrestrained flow, letting fitful halos of flashy fanfare outshine the beauty of the story and the purpose it was created for, making those 768 pages seem inadequate for the vastness of its scope. Had there been more delineation of events palatable for an average reader, I would never have wished for more of Daniel Deronda. Unlucky me!!!Nevertheless, Daniel Deronda shall stay forever as my favourite novel. Objections are objections only when I compare Eliot with Eliot. Or else, Daniel Deronda is a peak far loftier than most peaks in the mazy mountains of English literature. I cannot describe in mere words the strange, dear attachment that evolved within myself for this story. Sometimes, the people we meet only for a few moments in our lifetime can change our entire life forever. We may never meet them again, we may never be together, but they live forever as the most cherished memories we have. And that is of enigmatic importance to me, beyond all little imperfections this handsome story and its handsome hero has got.

Ce roman de George Eliot, merveilleusement écrit, est à la fois d'une grande vérité et subtilité et extrêmement romanesque au sens romantique du terme. C'est le cas d'ailleurs pour toutes les oeuvres de cette romancière, reconnue comme un des meilleurs écrivains du XIX, tous pays et sexes confondus. Il a deux centres d'intérêt bien distincts: d'une part, c'est le premier grand roman européen où les juifs occupent le devant de la scène et sont observés de près, en dehors de tout stéréotype et avec une profonde empathie. Le héros , Daniel Deronda, jeune gentleman anglais qui réussit à rester sympathique malgré sa trop grande perfection, est lui-même attiré par le sionisme. D'autre part, on a le portrait d'une jeune femme de la gentry anglaise: Guendolen Harleth, sublime enfant gâtée, égoïste et narcissique, qui connaît une destinée intimement cruelle et en devient infiniment attachante. Les trames autour des deux personnages sont bien distinctes mais elles se touchent en plusieurs points ; la relation passionnée entre les deux protagonistes, Daniel et Gwendolen, tous deux séduisants au plus haut degré, est totalement hors norme: furtive et très intense sans être amoureuse, elle les révèle à eux-mêmes et aux lecteurs.Ce roman splendide est servi par une édition soignée: la préface, courte, est utile pour situer l'œuvre et connaître les réactions qu'il provoqua; les notes en fin de volume donnent des informations utiles. Les aspects matériels de l'ouvrage, papier, typographie, mise en page sont agréables pour une édition courante à prix modéré.